What are your favorite sustainable gifts?

November 10, 2022 12:32 PM

I have some friends who care deeply about the earth, sustainability, and making a difference. I'd like to give them nice gifts that also celebrate our journey to living more eco-friendly, sustainable lives. Please recommend your favorite sustainable gifts to give or receive.

The ideal gift has three features:
(1) it is something I can buy from a REAL company, not a brand owned by wall street.
(2) it is decorated to show love for sustainability - green, animal prints, recycling icon, etc. (Tacky is fine!!!).
(3) it has a genuine, minimal impact on the earth, low carbon footprint, is upcycled or recycled, etc.

Can you please recommend your favorite products, shops, and brands for eco-friendly products and sustainable gifts that really make a difference?

A note about MeFiGiftGuide2022: These next two weeks, we are collecting questions on ask.metafilter.com that help people find fantastic holiday gifts that show love for friend, family, nature, and our global community. These questions, tagged with #MeFiGiftGuide2022, will be collected into an FPP on Nov 24, the night before Black Friday, to spread our community’s love and wisdom across the universe (or at least to the hearts of our future MeFi members).

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posted by rebent to Shopping (19 answers total)

I like Mighty Nest, a company that sells sustainable household stuff. They have a subscription service that's not expensive and I've almost always liked the stuff they send.
posted by tangosnail at 12:52 PM on November 10, 2022

This is not a specific product recommendation, so I hope it’s okay to share here, but I find Shop ethical! really useful for checking the credentials of a company/brand, especially as greenwashing becomes increasingly prevalent. It gives a rating but also links to the evidence (mostly reports by NGOs focussed on different issues — sustainability, workers’ rights, etc) so you can make your own judgment.
posted by robcorr at 1:00 PM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

Zinnia Textiles is beautiful, sustainable stuff. Depending on where you live though, the journey the package makes might make it less sustainable.

The best thing for people who care deeply about these values may be something second hand (one of my favourite gifts last Christmas was a vintage tray that suited my home). Anything new is creating waste, full stop and is pretty vulnerable to green washing.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 1:02 PM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]

Along the lines of "less *stuff*, more meaningful memories," local museum memberships. Particularly for aquariums, zoos, and museums focused on nature, they usually present their membership cards in eco-friendly packaging, especially if it's being done as a a gift.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 1:20 PM on November 10, 2022 [9 favorites]

I was going to pop in with museum memberships as well, or local botanical gardens and parks.
There's an annual pass for the national parks (there's also a lifetime pass for seniors as well as a discounted rate). Your state parks might also have annual passes (here's California's).
posted by sincerely yours at 1:31 PM on November 10, 2022 [4 favorites]

Do you have a local zero-waste store? I’d love to get a gift of laundry soap and bulk tooth tabs and stuff (in repurposed jars of course.)

I can never have too many stasher Bags, and the come in pretty colors.

Used/vintage cookware can be great. I have received a second-hand cake carrier, bread bowl, and bundt pan. All were terrific gifts for me.

One of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever gotten was someone sharpening all my knives. It materially improved my life and created exactly zero waste.
posted by juliapangolin at 2:49 PM on November 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

Marley's Monsters is our local zero-waste store here in Eugene, OR. Their Unpaper Towels come in a ton of different prints, and they're very handy because they can cling to a cardboard tube and go on a holder like regular paper towels. My mom's started talking them up to all her friends, and she also likes their corn silk floss.
posted by bassooner at 3:09 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

Equal Exchange sells fair trade coffee, tea, chocolate, and so on. Some of the products, but not all, feature the kind of decorations you're looking for. The owners seem to really value sustainability and I think they're doing important work.
posted by spiderbeforesunset at 3:20 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

As a person who can be described this way, I care 0% about items decorated to show a love for sustainability, and in fact it secretly annoys me a little bit. The only thing I really like about greenwashing thing, like cards with bikes on them or whatever, is that it gets the message out there that bikes are positive. But I already got that message.

So, to answer your question, a gift certificate for their local farmer's market.
posted by aniola at 3:25 PM on November 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

Sustainable gifts from Ten Thousand Villages.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:41 PM on November 10, 2022

EarthHero is a nice online company for sustainable household goods. I like the Full Circle Home natural latex gloves, which last longer than cheap rubber gloves and don't smell as bad. Get size L unless you have very small hands. The Redecker copper scouring cloth has many uses and can potentially be taken to a metal scrap place when used up. EarthHero also has dishcloths with nature-themed prints.

The challenge with sustainable gifts is knowing just what the recipient actually needs so as to avoid unnecessary purchases. Consumables can be one strategy since they will be used eventually.

You could also just get them an art print and buy a frame at the thrift store. A piece of fancy paper is pretty low-impact.
posted by Comet Bug at 8:12 PM on November 10, 2022

I came to recommend Marley’s Monsters, too, as another local fan. They have a wide range of products, they’re really well designed and fun, and they work great. My high school junior told me the other day that she is looking forward to building a kit from them to take with her when she goes to college.
posted by purenitrous at 8:29 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

If they live in a town, does it have a program for increasing the tree canopy there? There may be local programs where you can adopt a tree as a symbolic gift, or even volunteer events where you can purchase a tree dedication and have a specific tree planted for them in their location. If not, there are several organizations where you can donate money to have trees planted in a national forest on behalf of someone.
posted by gemmy at 9:10 PM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Gifts I've given to zero-waste fanatics erm, enthusiasts in my family:

- tree seedlings
- seed bombs/seed balls
- native plant or plants for pollinators seed packages
- glass food containers (for zero waste shopping) - glass tupperware, glass jars etc.
- reusable shopping bags
- stainless steel water bottles
- cloth napkins
- jewelry from local artists
- event tickets
- donations in their name (eg. I got an "adopt-a-dolphin" gift for a newlywed couple and they loved it, they were receiving regular emails about the whereabouts of "their" dolphin for a year)
- local restaurant vouchers
- bike bags (made by a local artist from advertisement banners donated by local businesses!)
- gift cards for services they're using: hair stylist, barber...
- gift cards for shops they're frequenting: bike shop, farmer's market, local zero-waste shop, vegan specialty store, natural cosmetics store, etc...
- books
- homemade soaps
- food and snacks from local producers
posted by gakiko at 1:58 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I consider sustainable anything you only have to buy once, that replaces things you would have bought multiple times previously. Bonus points if it eliminates the need to use one-use plastic.

- Magware cutlery and chopsticks
- Viva Recharge Tea / Coffee Mug
- Modl water bottle
- Revivo (upcycled shoes)
- Freitag (upcycled bags), the Miami Vice in particular
- Blunt Umbrella (one umbrella to last a lifetime)
- Solidteknics cookware (made to last generations)
posted by dobbs at 6:06 AM on November 11, 2022

Does a book about earth care with illustrations count? Rosemary Morrow's Earth Restorer's Guide to Permaculture is an excellent and practical guide to being a better human on a damaged planet by one of the best humans I know.

Otherwise, a nice folding knife is practical and can be engraved (I was given an Opinel with Ferment engraved on it as a milestone gift and it is much used and loved).

Tattoos of your chosen plant or animal guide?

Good bike lights. A worm farm. A cubic metre of really good compost.

Whimsically printed Swedish style dishcloths which can be washed multiple times, downgraded to grubbier cleaning tasks and eventually composted.

Hand knit woolen socks and a darning egg, needles and darning yarn.
posted by pipstar at 6:25 AM on November 11, 2022

I just saw an infographic that broke sustainable gifts into consumables (food), experiences (memberships, gift certificates for restaurants/markets -- not for physical stuff!), time (babysitting hours, etc), and something else I can't remember because I can't find the infographic. Donations, maybe. But basically: Don't buy physical stuff to celebrate sustainability! That's really missing the point.
posted by lapis at 6:50 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Beeswax wrap
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:25 AM on November 11, 2022

I found the infographic. It was for "clutter-free gifts," but same idea. It's from "becomingminimalist." Again, I like the categories and would take the lists under each as the start of brainstorming.

Experiences
Concert Tickets
Sporting Tickets
Movie Passes
Theater Tickets
Golf Passes
Escape Room
Symphony
Community Theater
Restaurant Gift Card
Indoor Rock Climbing
Bowling Passes
Daddy-Daughter Date
Summer Camp
Hot Air Balloon Ride

Time
Babysitter
House Cleaner
Professional Organizer
Car Wash
Massage
Manicure/Pedicure
Yard Service
Date Night Out
Oil Change

Memberships
Children's Museum
Zoo
Theme Park
Trampoline Park
Art Museum
Science Museum
State Parks
National Parks

Classes
Cooking
Dance
Sports
Swimming
Music
Internet Master Class
Coding
Painting/Art
Home Brewing
Scuba Diving
Private Coaching
Physical Trainer

Consumables
Fruit Basket
Flowers
Chocolates
Coffee Beans
Coffee Gift Card
Local Foods
Wine
Desserts
Meat/Cheeses

posted by lapis at 2:07 PM on November 12, 2022 [3 favorites]